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A shooting at a Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Jasper, Georgia, left a gunman dead and sent a Veterans Affairs employee to a hospital, police and the VA said Tuesday afternoon. Jasper Police responded to the scene around 1:30 p.m., and authorities said officers confronted the suspect outside the clinic and shot and killed him.
Jasper Police Chief Matt Dawkins said the gunman was from the Jasper area, but authorities did not immediately release more details. When asked what led up to the shooting, Dawkins said, “We don’t know what led up to it.”
The VA’s spokesman Peter Kasperowicz said a Veterans Affairs employee was taken by helicopter to a hospital after the gunfire. Kasperowicz also said the clinic would remain closed for the rest of the week, and that the VA was rescheduling appointments as necessary while ensuring Veterans and staff have access to counseling and chaplain services in the wake of the “tragic event,” according to an email statement.
Jasper police said their officers confronted the suspect outside the clinic as the shooting unfolded. In testimony from the scene collected by the Associated Press, Jimmy Mooney, who was shopping at a nearby Goodwill store, described hearing the gunfire and watching officers running down the hill. Mooney said, “We heard the gunshots going off,” and added that people in the store were told to get to the back while they could see law enforcement respond.
Jasper police said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would investigate the shooting along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. A Pickens County sheriff’s spokesman told reporters he did not know whether the suspect had a military background.
The Jasper outpatient clinic, which opened in the summer of 2020, provides services including primary care and specialty health services such as laboratory, telehealth and mental health care, according to its website. Jasper is a town of about 5,000 people roughly 60 miles north of downtown Atlanta.